Gun.



PATENTED APR. 25. 1905.

2 sums-sum 2.

GUN.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 1.1904.

T. G. JOHNSON,

No. 788,210. Patented April 25, 1905.

NITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS C. JOHNSON, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO WIN- CHESTER REPEATING ARMS COMPANY, OF NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, A CORPORATION.

GUN.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 788,210, dated April 25, 1905.

Application filed June 1, 1904. Serial No. 210,719. I

TO 1'15 W/ 007L667? general form of a bell-crank lever and com- 5 Be it known that I, THOMAS C. JOHNSON, of prising an upwardly-extending finger-piece New Haven, in the county of New Haven and 2 and a forwardly extending shank 3 and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and formed with a front cut-01f 4, located at the useful Improvement in Guns; and I do hereby inner forward corner of the shank, and with a declare the following, when taken in connecrear cut-off 5, located at the rear end of the tion with the accompanying drawings and the shank and extending downward therefrom,the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a front cut-off 4consisting of a beveled face and full, clear, and exact description of the same, the rear cut-off 5 consisting of a nose or tooth.

IO and which said drawings constitute part of The said gate is pivotally mounted upon a pin this specification, and represent, in 6, extending transversely through it in a lon- 6 Figure l, a broken view, in side elevation, gitudinal slot 7 in the top of the rear end of of a gun provided with my invention; Fig. 2, a tubular mouthpiece 8, set into a circular a broken view, in rear elevation, of the butt of chamber 9,formed in the rear end of the butt- I 5 the gun; Fig. 3, a broken view of the butt of stock 10 concentric with a longitudinally-arthe gun, partly in side elevation and partly in ranged bore-like cartridge-chamber 11, which 5 vertical section; Fig. 4, a detached View of extends forward into the butt-stockagreater the double-acting cartridge-gate and the tuor less distance according to the capacity for bular mouthpiece in which the same is mount-' cartridges which it is desired to have. The

0 ed; Fig. 5, a view thereof in rear elevation; bore of the tubular mouthpiece forms a car- Fig. 6, a plan view thereof; Fig. 7, a broken tridge-passage 12, located in line with the long view, in side elevation, of the butt of a gun cartridge-chamber 11 and forming an extenfurnished with one of the modified forms sion of the rear end thereof. When the gate which my invention may assume; Fig. 8, a is swung on its pin 6, the front cut-off 4 and 2 5 rear view thereof; Fig. 9, a view thereof in the rear cut-ofi 5 are alternately thrown into horizontal section on the line cab of Fig. 7 and the said cartridge-passage 12 of the mouthlooking upward from below in the direction piece, and therefore into the path of the carof the arrow 0; Fig. 10, a detached view, in tridges 13, as will be explained later on. The side elevation, of the gate; Fig. 11, a reverse tubular mouthpiece 8 is held in place in its 3 plan view thereof; Fig. 12, a rear end view circular chamber 9 by the engagement with thereof; Fig. 13, a detached view, in side eleits rear or outer end of the inner face of the vation, of the tubular mouthpiece; Fig. 14, an butt-plate 14, which is itself secured to the end view thereof. butt-stock 10 by screws 15 and 16 in the or- My invention relates to an improvement in dinary manner. As shown, the mouthpiece 35 that class of single shotguns which have their 8 is held against rotation by the formation at butt-stocks bored for the temporary recepits rear end of vertically-arranged bevels 17, 5 tion of cartridges, the object of my present adapting it to fit against the inner face of the invention being to provide a simple, convenbutt-plate, which is curved in cross-section; ient, and reliable gate for holding the carbut this is not essential. The said butt-plate 4 tridges in place and limiting their removal to is formed with a feeding-opening 18,conform one at a time. ing in size to and registering with the car- 9 With these ends in view my invention contridge-passage 12 of the mouthpiece, and sists in a gun having certain details of contherefore located in line with the cartridgestruction and combinations of parts, as will chamber 11 in the butt-stock. A vertically- 45 be hereinafter described, and pointed out in arranged slot 19 leads out of the upper edge the claims. of the feeding-opening 18 and receives the in- In carrying out my invention as shown in nor edge of the finger-piece 2 of the gate, Figs. 1 to 6, inclusive, of the drawings I emwhereby the mouthpiece will be prevented ployadouble-acting cartridge-gate having the from rotating in the chamber 9 if other provision is not made therefor. The said slot 19 of the gate to be thrown into the path of and intersects a shallow circular recess or cup-like depression 20, formed in the outer face of the butt-plate at a point directly above the feeding-opening 18, and enables the gate to be conveniently operated by its finger-piece without necessitating the undue projection thereof from the outer face of the butt plate. A spiral spring 21, located in aspring-socket 22 in the butt-stock 10, engages at its outer end with the inner edge of the finger-piece 2 and provides for holding the gate in its normal position, in which its rear cut-ofi 4 sufiiciently enters the bore 12 of the mouthpiece to engage with the head of the rearmost cartridge. The said spring 21 is prevented from turning the gate unduly on its pin 6 by the engagement of the upper edge of the gate with the wood of the butt-stock at the point 23, while the gate is prevented from being unduly turned on its pin 6 under pressure upon the outer edge of its finger-piece 2 by the engagement of the forward edge of its said finger-piece with the wood of the butt-stock at the point 24:, all as shown in Fig. 3.

To fill the cartridge-chamber 11, the gun is held muzzle downward and a cartridge inserted into the feeding-opening 18 bullet end first, but prevented from entering the passage 12 of the mouthpiece 8 to any extent by the rear cut-01f 5 of the gate, the finger-piece 2 of which is now pressed inward, whereby the said rear cut-ofi 5 is cleared from the path of the bullet, which is allowed to enter the passage 12, but when the gate is turned to clear its cut-off 5 from the bullet its front cut-off 4 is moved into the path of the bullet, so as to engage the body thereof. The bullet is then held by the cut-off L of the gate until the user of the gun removes the pressure of his finger from the finger-piece 2, when the spring 21 acts to turn the gate and release the bullet, which is now free to gravitate into the bottom of the chamber 11, which is filled by repeating the foregoing operation. [wish to note in this connection that in the construction described cartridges of various lengths may be used, it being only necessary to make the distance between the cut-off 5 and the cut-off 4 shorter than the length of the shortest cartridge.

To remove the cartridges from the cham ber 11, the gun is held in position so that the action of gravity will cause the cartridges to descend from the said chamber into the mouthpiece 8, in which they will be intercepted by the rear cut-off of the gate, with which the head of the rearmost cartridge will be engaged. The thumb is now used to push against the finger-piece 2 of the gate, whereby the cutoff 5 is cleared from engagement with the head of the rearmost cartridge, which is thus allowed to escape into the hand of the user. The very act of operating the gate to release the rearmost cartridge causes the front cut-ofl intercept the now rearmost cartridge, which is the cartridge which was just in advance of the cartridge that has been removed. Now when pressure on the finger-piece 2 is let up the rear cut-off 5 is brought into position to engage with the head of this cartridge. It will thus be seen that it is impossible to remove but one cartridge at a time, or, in other words, but one cartridge for each manipulation of the gate.

My improvement virtually converts a single-shot gun into a magazine-gun, because it enables the user to charge the gun with a relatively large number of cartridges, though the same cannot be automatically fed in the gun as in a repeating gun. It provides convenient means for carrying the cartridges and avoids the soiling of the clothes from the cartridges.

In the modified construction shown by Figs. 7 to 14, inclusive, of the drawings my improved double-acting cartridge-gate takes the form of a plug 25, having its outer end roughened and located in a horizontally-arranged circular chamber 26, formed in the butt-stock 27 and entering the'same transversely from one side thereof, but not extending through to the other side thereof. Toward its inner end and in its lower face this plug is formed with a semicircular clearance-opening 28, extending from front to rear and containing an inwardly-projecting front cut-ofl' 29 and a corresponding rear cut-off 30, located diagonally opposite each other, with the former in advance of the latter. At its inner end the plug is formed with a socket 31 for the reception of a coiled spring 32, the outer end of which rests upon the bottom of the chamber 26, the spring exerting a constant effort to push the plug or gate outward into its normal position. This plug or gate is located at a right angle to and above a tubular mouthpiece 33, forming an extension of the rear end of a cartridge receiving bore. or chamber 34, arranged longitudinally in the butt-stock 27, the mouthpiece 33 being located in a chamber 36 concentric with the bore 34: and held in place by the engagement "of a butt-plate 37 with its rear end. To permit the cut-offs 29 and 30 to be alternately thrown into the cartridge-passage 38 of the mouthpiece 33, the same is formed with two oppositely-located horizontally-arranged slots 39 and 40, respectively, receiving the cut-olfs 29 and 30. In the normal position of the plug the back cut-off will be entered through the slot 39 in the mouthpiece 31 in position to be engaged with the head of the rearmost cartridge. When, however, the plug is pushed transversely inward by the user of the gun against the tension of the spring 32, the back cut-off 30 is cleared from the cartridgepassage 38 and the rearmost cartridge released; but as the cut-off 30 moves out of the passage 38 the front cut-off 29 moves into the said passage in time to engage with the next cartridge but one to the rear, so as to intercept the same. Then when inward pressure upon the plug is removed the spring 32 acts to push the plug outward again, whereby the back cut-off 30 is moved into position to intercept the now rearmost cartridge at the same time the same is released by the movement out of the passage of the front cut-off, so that the cartridge will be caught and intercepted by the rear cut-off 30 after it is released by the front cutoff 29 and before it has had a chance to escape.

In view of the modification shown and described and of others that may obviously be made I would have it understood that I do not limit myself to the constructions herein set forth, but hold myself at liberty to make such departures therefrom as fairly fall within the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In a gun, the combination with abuttstock having a cartridge-receiving chamber extending forward into it from its rear end, of a mouthpiece located at the rear end of the said chamber and forming a continuation thereof, and a manually-operated double-acting cartridge-gate having two cartridge cutoffs located one in advance of the other and alternately moved into the passage of the mouthpiece whereby only one cartridge can be removed at a time from the said chamber.

2. In a gun, the combination with a buttstock having a cartridge-receiving chamber, of a mouthpiece, a manually-operated double-acting cartridge-gate mounted in the said mouthpiece and having two cartridge cutoffs located one in advance of the other and alternately entering the cartridge-passage of the said mouthpiece for engaging with the cartridges, whereby only one cartridge can be removed at a time from the said chamher, and a butt-plate applied to the buttstock over the said mouthpiece and having a cartridge-feeding opening registering with the said cartridge-receiving chamber.

also having a rear cut-off and a front cut-off alternately entered by the swinging of the said gate on its pivot into the path of the cartridges through the mouthpiece, and a spring coacting with the said gate to hold it in its normal position.

4. In a gun, the combination with a buttstock having a cartridge-receiving chamber, of a tubular mouthpiece having acartridgepassage, a double-acting cartridge-gate pivotally mounted in the said mouthpiece and formed with a front and a rear cut-off alternately entering the said passage as the gate is operated, whereby only one cartridge can be removed at a time, and a butt-plate having a feeding-opening registering with the cartridge-passage of the mouthpiece, a slot for the reception of the outer end of the gate, and a recess to facilitate the operation thereof.

5. In a gun, the combination with a buttstock having a cartridge-receiving chamber, of a mouthpiece having a cartridge-passage, a double-acting cartridge-gate in the general form of a bell-crank lever, the said gate being pivotally mounted in the said mouthpiece and comprising an upwardly -extending fingerpiece and a forwardly-extending shank and formed with a front and a rear cut-off alternately entering the said passage as the lever is swung on its pivot by its said finger-piece whereby only one cartridge can be removed at one time, and a butt-plate registering with the cartridge-passage of the mouthpiece and having a slot for the reception of the fingerpiece of the gate which is thus exposed for the manual operation of the gate.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification inthe presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS C. JOHNSON.

Witnesses:

DANIEL I-I. VEADER, GARDNER W. ALLEN. 

